Dare Not Blink

Submitted by Jim Greenwald on April 25, 2013 - 17:56

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Author's Summary

Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer... The Old Man is dead. Langdon Elerbee—the chairman and founder of Elerbee Engineering—has been struck down by cancer, and the multi-million dollar company that bears his name has devolved into clandestine corporate infighting. The company president, Jeff Wylie, has kept the old man’s illness a secret, so no one but Wylie is prepared to exploit the power vacuum created by Elerbee’s death. Now, Wylie is quietly pulling strings and making backdoor deals to consolidate his own position at the top of the pyramid. Dave Paige is a young gun. A regional vice president at age forty-two, he’s one of the company’s rising stars. He believes in playing the game the way that Elerbee himself had played it: with loyalty, integrity, and a personal devotion to excellence. He suddenly finds himself going head-to-head with corporate backstabbers who will pull every dirty trick in the book to achieve their own short-sighted goals. Dave isn’t just fighting for his job, or the millions of dollars at stake, or even for the company he has grown to love. He’s fighting for the soul of corporate America, and no one is guarding his back.

MWSA Review

An exciting novel even for those that think business has a language all its own. Gillis avoids technical language and makes business the backdrop for the in-fighting, back-stabbing, and second-guessing that occurs among any group working together.

His view of business might surprise many, especially these days with bailouts, bursting bubbles, and bankruptcies. Gillis speaks through Dave Paige who served in the Marine Corps. Dave is the chosen one by the head of a family-owned business, Elerbee Engineering.  When the Old Man dies suddenly, conspiracies lurk around every corner to exclude him in the reorganization that must take place. Wise to the new situation, Paige enlists the help of others who have seen his take-charge attitude such as crashing an executive meeting and his willingness to shoulder blame. In the melee that follows, Paige keeps notes about people during meetings and constantly adds to his ten-year collection, “Paige’s Laws of Business.”

He laments several changes that he sees in Elerbee Engineering:  a lack of quality, greed, and a hunt for power vaulting over the old-fashioned ideals of loyalty, ethics, and competency.

When others push him out of the way, some gleefully, he knows when to fight. From his Laws:  When it’s time to seize the moment, don’t waste precious time gloating over successes or whining over setbacks: seize it.” As he orchestrates his own plan to take over Elerbee Engineering, he does so maneuvering around the people we have come to know in the book (and in our own lives). Author Gillis with bold strokes creates the go-alongs, ones who follow the strongest voice, the ones who wait to see which way the wind is blowing, and the ones who think they are smarter than anyone else. One is like a czar, another smooth like a televangelist, one smiles as if it were a waste of his valuable time, another blinks as if getting used to his contact lenses.

The end of each chapter is a teaser pushing the story along. With a good mix of sentences, Gillis is not afraid of short sentences for emphasis. The end of Chapter Twenty is a good example of a teaser and short sentences to emphasize what’s about to happen to all who betrayed Elerbee Engineering and Paige.

First, however, would come New Orleans.

The Battle of New Orleans, he thought with amusement.

Victory or defeat.

Glory or humiliation.

A beginning or an end.

In any case, it was now time.

 

With the growing list of “Paige’s Laws of Business” to remind us of his beliefs, readers are confident of his success which is sweeter than anyone can imagine. He becomes someone to admire, and with his Laws, someone to emulate. Hence the dilemma faced by the man Paige has chosen to implement his coup. Money or loyalty. Money or ethics. Money or respect from Paige.

From Paige’s Laws: “Charisma can open the door; character will keep you in the room; competency will open successive doors.” “Look, listen, and learn, now and forever more. And take the time to enjoy a laugh with a friend.” Good sensible advice for everyone, even if Paige learned it in business.

Reviewed by: Margaret Brown (2013)

Author(s) Mentioned: 
Gillis, Gerald
Reviewer: 
Brown, Margaret
Work Type: 
Book Reviews
Tags: 
Business
Fiction
Mystery
Thriller